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A woman injured in a 2012 car crash has dropped her lawsuit against an Evanston-based medical practice, after a judge signed off on a settlement agreement ending the putative class action litigation in which she had accused the doctors at the practice of wrongly slapping liens on patients in an attempt to collect more than they should under agreements with health insurers.

A group of about 5,500 manufacturers, metal fabricators and others who bought steel from eight American steelmakers about a decade ago have announced a $30 million deal with three of those mill operators – a settlement the parties intend would cap off a massive antitrust class action lawsuit accusing the steelmakers of manipulating supply to boost prices for their steel products.

The city of Chicago should not be allowed to sidestep laws barring cities from collecting taxes on real estate sold by federal mortgage lending giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac by simply passing on the tax bills to those buying the properties from Fannie and Freddie, a federal judge has ruled.

In the wake of a deadlock at the U.S. Supreme Court, letting stand a federal appeals court’s ruling that public unions can compel workers not represented by unions to pay so-called “fair share” fees in lieu of union dues, a Chicago federal judge has tossed a lawsuit brought by several Illinois state workers, similarly challenging the union’s payroll deductions.

NorthShore University Health System will need to continue to defend itself against a class action antitrust lawsuit, after a federal judge ruled a group of patients and health insurers were not years too late in bringing their legal action over NorthShore’s decision to allegedly jack up its rates nearly 16 years ago following its acquisition of Highland Park Hospital.

A Chicago federal judge has chopped a few counts from a huge putative class-action suit – based on laws of various states, including Illinois – accusing the maker of the prescription pain killer Opana of improperly keeping the price of its product high by paying off another pharmaceutical company to delay the release of a generic version of the drug.

A judge has ruled a former CEO of Chicago coffee house chain Intelligentsia has grounds to continue his suit against his ex-business partners, who fired him and then allegedly refused to pay him more than $15 million in profit shares and his cut from the proceeds of the company’s sale.

The Illinois Supreme Court has strengthened the hand of hospitals in a ruling that took a physician’s suit off life support, because he failed to allege a north suburban hospital system inflicted “physical” harm upon him when it terminated his hospital privileges – which the court said is the necessary standard under state law for the hospital group to enjoy immunity from liability.

The grass is fake, but the legal dispute over who should own the rights to sell and install artificial turf in stadiums and practice facilities in Chicago – including at the Chicago Bears practice facility – is quite real.

Catholic Charities has asked a Cook County judge to overrule the Chicago Zoning Board’s permission for a medical marijuana dispensary to open near a Lakeview shelter for women and children it operates, saying the Zoning Board improperly overlooked the shelter’s unlicensed child care service when determining there were no day care centers or schools within 1,000 feet of the planned dispensary site.

A class-action lawsuit claiming SkyWest Airlines systemically underpays its flight attendants was transferred Dec. 9 from a federal court district in California to Chicago federal court, joining a virtually identical class action already pending against the airline in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.

A turf war has spilled into federal court over the rights to a city of Chicago contract worth as much as $25 million to install new artificial turf in place of grass along a new taxiway at O’Hare International Airport. On Dec. 18, FieldTurf USA Inc., the maker and installer of artificial turf in stadiums and other settings throughout the U.S., filed suit in Chicago federal court against Chicago-based rival turf installer AvTurf.